PRESS RELEASE: Dairy cruelty further exposes flawed live export system

PRESS RELEASE:By ANIMALS AUSTRALIA On SEP 19, 2012

The terrible suffering of Australian dairy cattle and sheep on a Sheikh’s property in Qatar - exposed by the ABC’s 7:30 program tonight – demands immediate government action to stop all further exports of animals to that facility.

“Australians will rightly be horrified by this first-hand account of the terrible neglect of Australian exported animals in Qatar. There are just no excuses for the deplorable lack of care afforded to these animals,” said Animals Australia Campaign Director Lyn White.

“The harrowing account of this eye-witness reveals that out of a shipment of 250 pregnant dairy cattle to a property in Qatar, more than 60 died appalling deaths from malnutrition and thirst. Up to 7,000 sheep exported to the same property from Australia earlier this year also died from malnutrition and heat stress.”

Animals Australia said that the government has been constantly warned of the need to also include dairy and breeding animals in the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS).

“The urgent need to put regulations in place around the export of breeding animals is an issue Animals Australia has raised consistently with the Minister and his Department.

“Dairy cattle and breeders have been put in the ‘too hard’ basket. If the government believes that regulatory measures cannot be put in place to protect their welfare on an ongoing basis – then clearly they should not be exported at all.

“Tens of thousands of breeding animals including dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep were exported from Australia last year. There is nothing to stop them being slaughtered in the brutal way that Animals Australia documented during our investigation in Indonesia.

“We are calling on the government to stop any further shipments of animals to this facility in Qatar and to fast-track a review into applying ESCAS regulations to breeding animals.

“These are not animal welfare advocates that have exposed this horrendous situation in Qatar. They are livestock professionals who could not remain silent; such is the terrible suffering that they witnessed, and their distress at their inability to intervene.”

Media contact: Lisa Chalk 0488 006 478 / 03 9329 6333

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